Cornell Takes Two From Red Devils

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – The Eureka softball team dropped a pair of road contests at Cornell on Sunday, falling 9-6 and 6-1.

Game 1: Cornell 9, Eureka 6

The Red Devils scored the first run of the game in the first inning on an RBI single by Mackenzie Daniels (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) that scored Raelyn Payne (Lexington, Ill./Lexington).

However, things got rocky in the middle innings. The Rams evened the score with an unearned run in the third, then took the lead with three runs on three hits and an error in the fourth.

Eureka came back and tied the game again with three runs in the fifth inning.

Christine Mepham (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) singled with one out, and Payne followed it with a double to left center to put runners on the corners.

Mepham then scored on a passed ball and Payne came home on a sac fly RBI by Tressa Grisham (Morton, Ill./East Peoria), A walk by Kate LeMasters (Metamora, Ill./Metamora) and a single to left by Daniels later, Bria Wessel (Peoria, Ill./Limestone) delivered an RBI double to center to make it 4-4.

The problem was that the Rams responded with a four-run rally in the bottom half.

An RBI double by Payne in the sixth got one run back, Cornell tacked on another in the bottom half again.

In the top of the seventh, Eureka scored another in the top half off an RBI single by Bri Tanksley (Spring Bay, Ill./Metamora) to load the bases with one out.

Cornell proceeded to get out of the jam with a fly-out and a foul-out.

The Red Devils posted 13 hits on the game to Cornell's 14.

Payne finished 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI. Wessel went 3-for-4 with a double and RBI,  LeMasters and Daniels each contributed a pair of hits.

Game 2: Cornell 6, Eureka 1

In Game 2, Eureka scattered six hits, but struggled to string them together and scratch across runs.

Payne went 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. Grisham went 2-for-4 with the team's only RBI, and Delaney Douglas (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland) contributed the team's remaining hit.

The Rams scored six runs on 12 hits, but they did most of their damage in a five-run second inning. Their sixth and final run came in the sixth inning.

Eureka got on the board in the seventh off an RBI single by Grisham.

A highlight in the loss, the Red Devils successfully cut down their errors from five in the first game to none in Game 2.

Up Next

Next Saturday, Eureka (1-6) will go back on the road to take on Rose-Hulman (9-3) in a noon doubleheader.